Cole: Being a Celt is about the shirt not the money

Celtic announced the signing of Carlton Cole earlier today, and the 32-year-old is already pleasing Celtic fans with his approach to the club.

The former Chelsea and West Ham striker signed for the Hoops until the summer of 2017, after weeks of talks and training with the rest of the Celtic squad at Lennoxtown.

Cole has scored 85 career goals in 384 career appearances and will be looking to do his utmost to help Celtic succeed by adding more goals to his tally.

Despite in interest from other clubs, the England striker chose Celtic and compared them with one of his former clubs when he spoke to the media earlier, as quoted by Celtic’s official website.

Being a Celt is not about the money, it’s about wearing the shirt with pride.

It was the same at West Ham, if you put on that shirt and wore it with pride, the fans would take to you.

Cole spent nine years at West Ham after failing to make an impact at Chelsea. He signed for the Hammers in 2006, and left in the summer of 2013, but was quickly resigned and released the following summer. Since his release, he has attracted interest from other clubs, however once he saw the buzz surrounding his potential move to Celtic, he couldn’t resist.

As soon as I came here everyone was explaining to me, even the taxi drivers, how much the club means to them, that’s what I wanted to hear and I want to hopefully be a hero to them.

I’ve been up here alone for the past two or three weeks and I’ve settled in really well. The people of Glasgow are really welcoming and I’ve had just a great rapport with people.

There were other clubs interested, but I showed my commitment to stay here when I was injured. You can’t really sign an injured player but Celtic accommodated me well and I thought this was the best place for me to be.

His first chance to impress the Celtic faithful could come as early as this weekend against Dundee United at Paradise and will no doubt be watching on as Celtic face Molde tonight in Norway.